Collective Spirit Free School
Collective Spirit Free School was a school that catered for children aged 11-16. It was built to hold 400 students, however only 243 students attended once the school opened in September 2013 on the old site of South Chadderton School. In 2012 South Chadderton School joined with Kaskenmoor School which then became Oasis Academy Oldham. After this merge, the school was re-located allowing Collective Spirit to be formed. The opening of the school was said to be controversial as it was the first free school in the Borough of Oldham. The opening also caused further controversy due to the land that the school is situated on is "prime development land" and worth an estimated £1.1 million. Many people thought that 'giving' the school the land was a lost opportunity to sell the land to a developer.
Ofsted have a timeline of the school's life and inspections that were carried out. A full inspection took place in May 2016 and Ofsted ruled all areas to be inadequate which is the worst rating the board can give. A monitoring visit later took place in November 2016 before it closed the following year in August. A local MP called for the school to be closed after the Ofsted report and went ahead to say: "students weren't being given an acceptable standard of education and that students felt unsafe due to bullying and fighting". He further stated it was one of the "most damming" Ofsted reports he'd ever seen. Since then the site has been left abandoned. After a bit of digging, it appears a report was written on South Chadderton School in 2013 in the gap where the previous schools vacated and Collective Spirit was getting ready to become a reality. It is fair to say a bit has changed this then.
The Explore:
We first found this site when planning a day trip around Oldham and neighbouring areas. A quick check of the news in the area pulled this site up.
I didn't have much hope for it but thought it may be worth checking out if we had time. On the day when we headed out with @Urbandoned we ended up figuring a route onto the rather exposed land.
We had an unexpected encounter with a security guard sat in the middle of the grounds that informed us with the latest news and plans for the school. The knowledge we gained from him was useful, so after being escorted out we devised a plan for another day... After we returned from our Southern trip, we were hungry for more spots and with a slight insight to what might be behind the walls of the buildings we headed back to the school to get a proper look at what was left.
The exterior offered large spaces for pupils to use on their breaks etc..
Firstly, we entered a building that seemingly connected to the sports hall, but we later discovered it didn't. This part of the site was new and clean and also had power running through it which was a promising sign.
We are pretty sure this is where security were previously posted, so we were sceptical about the older parts of the site still having power.
After exploring this smaller building, we headed over to main school building containing the assembly hall, kitchen and classrooms.
A light shining outside piqued our curiosity as to what else we might find inside.
Inside long corridors with side lighting that still worked could be found. We weren't familiar with the design used; the ceilings were low and the skylights protected by a prison/asylum like fencing.
The classrooms were stripped bare and also very new looking.
At the end of the corridor we came to a wider area in the school where the front entrance was and a relatively bland staircase was leading to the upper floor where power wasn't working.
Here is the actual entrance. The stonework added some sort of character to the building.
To the right of the lobby was the assembly hall and kitchen. The hall would presumably been used as a space to eat at lunchtime as no canteen could be found.
Since these photos were taken, further vandalism has occurred. More glassware has been smashed and items thrown around the room. You can see the difference below:
At this point, we had one mission to complete and it was to find some science labs. We didn't know if they were in this building or any were left at all, but we made a good guess and searched until we found them tucked away. At first, we shot them without the lights thinking they didn't work. However, when @DustySensorPhotography had shown interest of seeing the site, we returned and ended up getting the lights working!
Directly above the ground floor labs were another set with pupil's work left hanging on the walls.
We were all very happy with what we had shot and exited. One thing was bugging us and it was the sports hall. At first we hadn't found a way in and the building we first explored didn't link, but on a final passing look we found our entrance. This was the highlight for us.
The changing rooms were either part scrapped or getting stripped. The lighting merely held on to the new drop ceiling that had been half removed.
And finally, we called it a day... We produced a video on the site. Feel free to watch below:
Thanks for reading!
Collective Spirit Free School was a school that catered for children aged 11-16. It was built to hold 400 students, however only 243 students attended once the school opened in September 2013 on the old site of South Chadderton School. In 2012 South Chadderton School joined with Kaskenmoor School which then became Oasis Academy Oldham. After this merge, the school was re-located allowing Collective Spirit to be formed. The opening of the school was said to be controversial as it was the first free school in the Borough of Oldham. The opening also caused further controversy due to the land that the school is situated on is "prime development land" and worth an estimated £1.1 million. Many people thought that 'giving' the school the land was a lost opportunity to sell the land to a developer.
Ofsted have a timeline of the school's life and inspections that were carried out. A full inspection took place in May 2016 and Ofsted ruled all areas to be inadequate which is the worst rating the board can give. A monitoring visit later took place in November 2016 before it closed the following year in August. A local MP called for the school to be closed after the Ofsted report and went ahead to say: "students weren't being given an acceptable standard of education and that students felt unsafe due to bullying and fighting". He further stated it was one of the "most damming" Ofsted reports he'd ever seen. Since then the site has been left abandoned. After a bit of digging, it appears a report was written on South Chadderton School in 2013 in the gap where the previous schools vacated and Collective Spirit was getting ready to become a reality. It is fair to say a bit has changed this then.
The Explore:
We first found this site when planning a day trip around Oldham and neighbouring areas. A quick check of the news in the area pulled this site up.
I didn't have much hope for it but thought it may be worth checking out if we had time. On the day when we headed out with @Urbandoned we ended up figuring a route onto the rather exposed land.
We had an unexpected encounter with a security guard sat in the middle of the grounds that informed us with the latest news and plans for the school. The knowledge we gained from him was useful, so after being escorted out we devised a plan for another day... After we returned from our Southern trip, we were hungry for more spots and with a slight insight to what might be behind the walls of the buildings we headed back to the school to get a proper look at what was left.
The exterior offered large spaces for pupils to use on their breaks etc..
Firstly, we entered a building that seemingly connected to the sports hall, but we later discovered it didn't. This part of the site was new and clean and also had power running through it which was a promising sign.
We are pretty sure this is where security were previously posted, so we were sceptical about the older parts of the site still having power.
After exploring this smaller building, we headed over to main school building containing the assembly hall, kitchen and classrooms.
A light shining outside piqued our curiosity as to what else we might find inside.
Inside long corridors with side lighting that still worked could be found. We weren't familiar with the design used; the ceilings were low and the skylights protected by a prison/asylum like fencing.
The classrooms were stripped bare and also very new looking.
At the end of the corridor we came to a wider area in the school where the front entrance was and a relatively bland staircase was leading to the upper floor where power wasn't working.
Here is the actual entrance. The stonework added some sort of character to the building.
To the right of the lobby was the assembly hall and kitchen. The hall would presumably been used as a space to eat at lunchtime as no canteen could be found.
Since these photos were taken, further vandalism has occurred. More glassware has been smashed and items thrown around the room. You can see the difference below:
At this point, we had one mission to complete and it was to find some science labs. We didn't know if they were in this building or any were left at all, but we made a good guess and searched until we found them tucked away. At first, we shot them without the lights thinking they didn't work. However, when @DustySensorPhotography had shown interest of seeing the site, we returned and ended up getting the lights working!
Directly above the ground floor labs were another set with pupil's work left hanging on the walls.
We were all very happy with what we had shot and exited. One thing was bugging us and it was the sports hall. At first we hadn't found a way in and the building we first explored didn't link, but on a final passing look we found our entrance. This was the highlight for us.
The changing rooms were either part scrapped or getting stripped. The lighting merely held on to the new drop ceiling that had been half removed.
And finally, we called it a day... We produced a video on the site. Feel free to watch below:
Thanks for reading!
Last edited:
